“In the universe, there are things that are known, and things that are unknown, and in between there are doors.” William Blake (1757-1827)
This week I've had a barrage of questions flowing across the computer from various people checking in as the holidays approach. On one end of the emotional spectrum was someone wanting my thoughts on the underpinnings of the emotion of dread. This was followed by another friend who spoke of a new anxiety around going places alone. At the other end of the spectrum, was a note from someone else who was perplexed by a formal health reminder from his cardiologist's office to practice gratitude this month! November has been a month of escalating anxiety, with the elections, the weather, ongoing war in Ukraine, cumulative reports of violence and continued health warnings of a "tri-epidemic" of flu, RSV, and Covid. No wonder the word dread comes to mind.
Like anxiety, dread is anticipatory fear--different from the natural fear we feel in the moment when actually facing a threat or danger. While we may use the word dread to describe our own resistance to an anticipated difficult situation, usually it's an exaggeration of our anxiety--our feelings of uncertainty and lack of control. Dread is the more intense emotion because it carries an often non-specific sense of impending doom. The word "doom" itself is shadowy and the dread is shadowy. It can be part of accumulated anxiety (like a panic attack), or accumulated despair and sadness (an aspect of depression), and yes, it is possible it is intuitive. The bottom line is that things feel hopeless and dreadful until we face them head-on. If they are shadowy and undefined, we cannot mobilize our resources to solve and adapt. With the level of misinformation and deliberate disinformation in social media and our current society, dread can easily become a collective experience, hovering in shadow. Dread (and anxiety) is countered in the willingness to face the truth.
And gratitude? Well, it is Thanksgiving week. It's hard to maintain darkness and doom when your heart is grateful. The grateful heart is no longer just a metaphor; there is cumulating scientific research that gratitude practice is indeed healing and strengthens our physical heart by making us more resilient toward stress, lowering blood pressure, improving immune function decreasing inflammation, improving mood and sleep, and creating stronger, healthier relationships. Gratitude remains an ancient core spiritual practice of the world's religions. We are just beginning to grasp the fullness of it's Grace. William Blake put it this way, "Gratitude is Heaven itself. There is no Heaven without gratitude." (Susan Nettleton)
Gratitude practice ideas from the American Heart Association: https://www.heart.org/.../simple-ways-to-practice-gratitude
For a poetic take on your Thanksgiving cooking: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/.../how-to-stuff-a-pepper
And gratitude for Natures' bounty, including Grapefruit: https://www.stateoftheartsnj.com/958/